Disney Renaissance 2/Disney Revival

[ShyViolet]

There are still elements of Disney that I love (Pixar/WDAS Animation) and since I have Disney + there’s lots more to explore. But I just don’t feel as enthusiastic about Dis as I used to and this makes me sad. .

This is about a decade old, but sums up how I feel right now:

https://youtu.be/yUGZwlLoZh0

I don’t mean to be too grumpy as I am still excited for Pixar’s/WDAS’s future output. (Especially Elemental and Inside Out 2.). I realize that a lot of other people enjoy the Star Wars/Marvel stuff and that’s totally fine by me.
It just sometimes feels that with all the franchises, the “magic” is getting lost in the shuffle.

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Also, possible “short list” for post-Iger CEO:

https://comicbook.com/irl/news/disney-c ... missioner/

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Company layoffs starting this week:

https://deadline.com/2023/03/disney-lay ... 235310679/

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Iger Time interview:

(April 13th)

https://time.com/6269006/bob-iger-interview-time100/

The answer is really to continue to fuel it with great creativity, particularly storytelling, to not underinvest, actually, in those. And to respect the past, but also be completely capable of and willing to be relevant by some degree of modernization; understanding that the world has changed and while certain stories stand the test of time, others don’t. You have to be incredibly adept at being able to read the read the room, so to speak, or the world, in order to maintain brand relevance, character relevance, franchise relevance.

[ShyViolet]

Rumors of Apple merger persist:

https://fortune.com/2023/04/17/disney-c ... teve-jobs/

[Ben]

I’d rather The Diz stay a separate entity, natch, but if it did happen I’d prefer it to merge with Apple over anyone. Seems after companies were all split up in the 90s, big conglomerates are the thing again now, and almost every major entertainment empire is linked to some kind of tech company or has secondary divisions that do separate business from their film and TV offerings, no matter how big or small.

Disney, ironically due to Iger's strategic positioning as a subsidiary buyer, is big enough in scale to compete on its own terms, such as Warners now it has Discovery's money, but it’s also somewhat inevitable that even these and others will be brought in-house together with bigger companies at some point, and Disney's longtime association with Apple makes some sense in that regard, but I also fear it could get very messy.

For me personally, it would be the point where Walt's Disney, which has slowly been becoming something else in the last ten years anyway, finally evolves, or devolves, into being just another content company, providing cookie-cutter entertainment to fuel another tech giant's ecosystem of streaming and devices.

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Disney and Apple to partner over Apple Vision Pro:

https://www.thewrap.com/apple-vision-pr ... -bob-iger/

[Ben]

Haha…I was going to pop in here yesterday and post THR's take on this same news, but I didn’t get around to it, with the headline, "It begins here…"

You only need to read between the line "the greatest storytelling company in the world with the most innovative technology company in the world" to see what they’re thinking…

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Yes, it’s true, Disney’s television unit might actually be sold off. That’s like a third of the company. There’s also been A LOT of speculation that Dis really will be sold to Apple.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/are-di ... 235675418/

So weird how all this stuff was acquired through the years only to be sold. Forgive me for saying this, but it feels eerily like 1984. (The year, not the book! Lol.)

[EricJ]

Yeah, but back in 1984, we actually WATCHED broadcast television.

[ShyViolet]

I just meant because of the whole “selling off pieces of the company”/acquisition talk….kind of takes you back to 1984, what with corporate raider Saul Steinberg almost buying Dis.

[ShyViolet]

Oh geez…

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/no- ... 12671.html

I’m definitely for Apple buying them, but I didn’t even consider what would happen to the parks….

[Ben]

Good point. I would have expected them to just take the parks as part and parcel of the business, since there’s a lot there that Apple tech could help make more interactive, etc. As long as they’re making money, just let them turn over; they’re a big part as to why Disney is what it is as well. But, yeah…

The Walt Disney Company, 1923 — 2023

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[Ben]

The really sad part is that I would put that date a little earlier, actually. "Disney" stated dying between the acquisitions of Pixar and Marvel, and LucasFilm, arguably at *least* at the buying of LucasFilm, and then the 20th Century assets. Once D+ launched, it was all only about sequels, superheroes and Star Wars, and had all gotten too big, so there is no-where else to go, other than to keep buying. But nothing major is on the block anymore.

Warners has gone in with Discovery, and maybe that is up for another tech buy at some point in a few years, after the AT&T mess. Amazon has MGM. Sony, maybe? But they seem pretty happy with their device side too. Lionsgate is always rumored but would be a bad fit. And they’re really only just a mini-major.

The worse thing Iger did is still the kneejerk selling of the Miramax library. Whatever Weinstein did, that library was gold, with cult hits and Oscar winners aplenty, kind of like an even more prestigious version of Touchstone, which also still doesn’t get enough love. And all of them with the Buena Vista name as their distributor!

Ah, well, I guess all is transactional in the end. It all comes from nothing; it will all end up as nothing…